Åsen is a former municipality in the old

Nord-Trøndelag Nord-Trøndelag (; "North Trøndelag") was a counties of Norway, county constituting the northern part of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. It bordered the old Sør-Trøndelag ("South Trøndelag") county as well as the county of Nordl ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1962. The municipality was located to the southwestern part of what is now

Levanger Municipality Levanger is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Trøndelag Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the district of Innherred. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Levanger (town), town of Levanger. Some o ...

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; or is a county and coextensive with the Trøndelag region (also known as ''Midt-Norge'' or ''Midt-Noreg,'' "Mid-Norway") in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County (); in 1804 the county was ...

county, roughly bordered in the north by the lakes

Hammervatnet Hammervatnet is a lake in Levanger Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The lake lies on the north side of the village of Åsen. The European route E6 highway runs along the eastern tip of the lake. The nearby lake Hoklingen flows into t ...

and

Hoklingen Hoklingen is a lake in Levanger Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The lake lies just to the east of the village of Åsen and about south of the village of Skogn. The lake Movatnet is the main inflow of water into Hoklingen. There is ...

, and by the Åsenfjorden to the west. The

administrative centre An administrative centre is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune, is located. In countries with French as the administrative language, such as Belgi ...

was the village of

Åsen Åsen is a village in Levanger Municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. The village is located between the lakes Hammervatnet and Hoklingen. The European route E06 highway and the Nordlandsbanen railway line both pass through the village. The ...

. Prior to its dissolution in 1962, the municipality was the 455th largest by area out of the 731 municipalities in Norway. Åsen Municipality was the 468th most populous municipality in Norway with a population of about 1,931. The municipality's

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was and its population had decreased by 5.2% over the previous 10-year period.

History

The

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

of ''Aasen'' was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see

formannskapsdistrikt () was the name of a Norwegian self-governing municipality. The name was used from the establishment these municipalities in 1838 until the name fell out of use in 1863. The municipalities had their legal basis from two laws enacted on 14 Jan ...

law). The spelling was later changed to ''Åsen''. During the 1960s, there were many municipal mergers across Norway due to the work of the

Schei Committee The Schei Committee () was a committee named by the Government of Norway to look into the organization of municipalities in Norway post-World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a ...

. On 1 January 1962, the town of Levanger (population: 1,669) was merged with the neighboring Frol Municipality (population: 3,774), Åsen Municipality (population: 1,939), and

Skogn Municipality Skogn is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in the old Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1962. The municipality was located to the south and southwest of the L ...

(population: 4,756) to form a new, larger

Name

The municipality (originally the

) is named after the local fjord, Åsenfjorden (). The name is identical to the Norwegian word which means "the hill". On 21 December 1917, a royal resolution enacted the 1917 Norwegian language reforms. Prior to this change, the name was spelled ''Aasen'' with the

digraph Digraph, often misspelled as diagraph, may refer to: * Digraph (orthography), a pair of characters used together to represent a single sound, such as "nq" in Hmong RPA * Ligature (writing), the joining of two letters as a single glyph, such as " ...

" Aa", and after this reform, the name was spelled ''Åsen'', using the letter Å instead.

Churches

The

Church of Norway The Church of Norway (, , , ) is an Lutheranism, evangelical Lutheran denomination of Protestant Christianity and by far the largest Christian church in Norway. Christianity became the state religion of Norway around 1020, and was established a ...

had one parish () within Åsen Municipality. At the time of the municipal dissolution, it was part of the Frosta

prestegjeld A ''prestegjeld'' was a geographic and administrative area within the Church of Norway (''Den Norske Kirke'') roughly equivalent to a parish. This traditional designation was in use for centuries to divide the kingdom into ecclesiastical areas tha ...

and the

Sør-Innherad prosti This list of churches in Nidaros is a list of the Church of Norway churches in the Diocese of Nidaros in Norway. It includes all of the parishes in Trøndelag county. The diocese is based at the Nidaros Cathedral in the city of Trondheim in Trondh ...

(

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

) in the

Diocese of Nidaros Nidaros is a diocese in the Lutheran Church of Norway. It covers Trøndelag county in Central Norway and its cathedral city is Trondheim, which houses the well-known Nidaros Cathedral. Since 10 September 2017, the Bishop of Nidaros is Herborg ...

Geography

Åsen Municipality was located to the southwest of the town of Levanger. It was bordered by

Frosta Municipality Frosta is the smallest List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Trøndelag Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre is the village of Alstad, Norway, Alstad (also known as ''Frosta''). Other villages in Frosta includ ...

to the west,

to the north and east, and by

Hegra Municipality Hegra is a List of former municipalities of Norway, former municipality in the old Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1874 until its dissolution in 1962. The municipality was located in the Stjørdalen valley. It enc ...

and Skatval Municipality to the south. The highest point in the municipality was the tall mountain Stokkvola.

Government

While it existed, Åsen Municipality was responsible for

primary education Primary education is the first stage of Education, formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary education. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first schools and middle s ...

(through 10th grade), outpatient

health services Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

senior citizen Old age is the range of ages for people nearing and surpassing life expectancy. People who are of old age are also referred to as: old people, elderly, elders, senior citizens, seniors or older adults. Old age is not a definite biological sta ...

services,

welfare Welfare may refer to: Philosophy *Well-being (happiness, prosperity, or flourishing) of a person or group * Utility in utilitarianism * Value in value theory Economics * Utility, a general term for individual well-being in economics and decision ...

and other

social services Social services are a range of public services intended to provide support and assistance towards particular groups, which commonly include the disadvantaged. Also available amachine-converted HTML They may be provided by individuals, private and i ...

zoning In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for ...

economic development In economics, economic development (or economic and social development) is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and object ...

, and municipal

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s and utilities. The municipality was governed by a

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

of directly elected representatives. The

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

was

indirectly elected An indirect election or ''hierarchical voting,'' is an election in which voters do not choose directly among candidates or parties for an office ( direct voting system), but elect people who in turn choose candidates or parties. It is one of the o ...

by a vote of the municipal council. The municipality was under the jurisdiction of the

Frostating Court of Appeal The Frostating Court of Appeal () is one of six courts of appeal in the Kingdom of Norway. The Court is located in the city of Trondheim. The court has jurisdiction over the counties of Trøndelag and Møre og Romsdal. These areas constitute the ...

Mayors

The

() of Åsen was the political leader of the municipality and the chairperson of the municipal council. Here is a list of people who held this position: * 1838–1839: Jonas Jonsen Nes * 1839–1839: Erik Mikalsen Skjelstad * 1840–1843: Peder Ellevsen Berg * 1844–1845: Ole Tørrissen Vedul * 1846–1847: Peder Steffensen Nonstad * 1848–1859: Peder Olsen * 1860–1866: Christian Bye * 1867–1869: Ole Island * 1870–1873: Henrik Reinaas * 1874–1879: John Stavnaas * 1880–1889: Peder O. Mæhre ( V) * 1890–1891: Arn Solem Bye ( V) * 1892–1919: Ole Martin Augdahl ( V) * 1920–1922: Anders Todal ( V) * 1923–1925: John Wold ( Bp) * 1926–1931: Anders Todal ( V) * 1932–1937: John Wold ( Bp) * 1938–1941: Sigurd Aarnseth ( V) * 1942–1943: Sigurd Lundby ( NS) * 1944–1944: Ragnar Fiskvik ( NS) * 1945–1945: Sigurd Aarnseth ( V) * 1946–1947: Olaf Jensen ( Ap) * 1948–1951: Fridtjov Mo ( Bp) * 1952–1955: Olav Mo ( Bp) * 1956–1957: Olaf Jensen ( Ap) * 1958–1959: Ivar Jørum ( Ap) * 1960–1961: Fridtjov Mo ( Sp)

Municipal council

The

of Åsen was made up of 17 representatives that were elected to four year terms. The tables below show the historical composition of the council by political

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

References

{{Authority control Levanger Former municipalities of Norway 1838 establishments in Norway 1962 disestablishments in Norway Populated places established in 1838 Populated places disestablished in 1962